Newkids Edutainment/Newkids Edutainment.iso/readspel/aeispell/aeispell.doc

Text File | 1991-10-30 | 14KB | 294 lines

                             AEISPELL Version 1.0

                                Auto Exec Inc.
                              6 Gannestion Drive
                              Augusta, ME 04330

                             Fax: [phone]
                             BBS: [phone]




First the required stuff,

Disclaimer:

Auto Exec Inc. (AEI) disclaims any and all promises, representations, and
warranties, except as expressly set forth in this agreement, with respect to
the software provided, including their condition, their conformity to any
representation or description, the existence of any latent or patent defects,
and the merchantability for fitness for a particular purpose.  Vendor further
disclaims any and all other promises, representation, and warranties with
respect to the nature and quality of any other performance by vendor, except
as expressly set forth in this agreement.

Limitation of Liability:

In no event shall Vendor be liable to Customer for any loss of profits; any
incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages; or any claims or
demands brought against Customer by any other party, even if Vendor has been
advised of the possibility of such claims or demands, and this limitation is
intended to apply all Customer claims, regardless of which provisions of this
Agreement have been breached or have proven ineffective.

Indemnification:

Customer shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Vendor from all liability
and claims whatsoever for any injury to persons or property for any loss,
expense, or damage incurred by any of Customers personnel, customers, or
invitees or by any other person or party (except agents or employees of
Vendor) arising as a result of or in connection with Customers acquisition or
use of the Licensed Software, or Vendor's performance of its obligations or
exercise of its rights hereunder.


Ok, Now the good information,





BACKGROUND of AEISPELL

AEISPELL is an educational program designed to assist students in improving
their spelling ability.  The primary problem I have always seen with spelling
programs administered on a computers was how to tell the user the word without
actually showing the word to them.  Various methods I have seen incorporated
to overcome this problem have been phonetic displays, flashing the word and
attempts at voice digitizing from ASCII files.  We felt that none of these
preformed the job adequately, thus we optioned for digitized recordings of
words and usage to be played back over the PC speaker.  Why the speaker?
Because we also did not want users to have to incur additional costs of voice
boards.  The downside is the quality of the speech. We have attempted to
produce recognizable speech the best we can with the hardware available.  A
female voice is used because male voices tend to be too deep to be readily
understandable.

WHAT WE DON'T UNDERSTAND

After some research of words we have a great deal of difficulty understanding
how it is determined what words should be known by what grade level.  We have
used a list of words from spelling books used at various grade levels to
overcome this difficulty.  We have also created an algorithm to calculate what
grade level we believe the word should be.  It is based on ARI (average
reading index), Coleman-Liau Index, Kincaid and Flesch scores.  These are all
displayed during each example to help you realize the difficulty level of the
word being presented.  The Gunning Fog Index is also displayed, which
theoretically shows the approximate grade level for a sentence.  We generate
the FOG INDEX by adding the word to a standard phrase.

If you understand a scientific method of determining the correct grade level
for words, or a reference guide, we would appreciate you dropping us a line
and tell us about it.  Thanks.

RUNNING AEISPELL

AEISPELL requires a 1.2 MEG HD FLOPPY, 1.44 MEG HD FLOPPY or a HARD DRIVE to
properly run.  Obviously the speed of the program will improve dramatically if
it is run from a HARD DRIVE.

All the files contained in the .ZIP file AEISPELL.ZIP should be placed in a
single directory or on a High Density Floppy.

How to unzip AEISPELL into a Hard Drive Directory - First make a directory on
your hard drive to hold AEISPELL, for example to use a directory called
AEISPELL, issue the following commands from DOS on the drive desired:

CD\
MD\AEISPELL
CD\AEISPELL
PKUNZIP A:AEISPELL    note:assuming the zip file is on A: drive





To unzip a downloaded copy of AEISPELL to a floppy, place a formatted floppy
in the drive desired, normally A: or B:. Move to the directory containing
AEISPELL.ZIP and issue the following command to place the files onto the
floppy:

PKUNZIP AEISPELL A:            note: replace A: with B: if B: is desired
                                     end destination.

RUNNING AEISPELL AFTER IT HAS BEEN DECOMPRESSED:

Move to the location AEISPELL.EXE and all associated files are located.

Enter AEISPELL to startup the program.  First you will hear a welcome message
and see some graphic fun, then the main menu will appear.  AEISPELL is mouse
compatible.

To EXIT AEISPELL either press Esc or highlight QUIT on the menu and press
ENTER.

HELP is accessed by either pressing F1 or clicking on the HELP box in the
lower left hand corner of the screen.  To close the HELP screen, either press
Esc Key or click on the small white boxes located in the upper left hand
corner of the HELP WINDOW.

MAIN MENU OPTIONS

     1.  Take Spelling Test - Obviously you must have a test to take before
     this option is usable - We provide you with one for quick starting.  When
     you select this option, a picklist of users will be displayed, we created
     a generic user called AEISPELL to use initially until you create you own
     list of users. Next a picklist of available tests is displayed, highlight
     the desired test and press enter or click on it with the mouse twice.
     Now the test begins.  First all the difficulty calculations are
     displayed, then the word and it usage, and finally the word is
     pronounced.  To hear the word again, press F10, to listen to the word in
     a sentence press F9.

     Once you are sure you know what the word is, enter the word in the space
     provided.  This window also shows you what word number you are on and how
     many words there are in the test.

     If you miss the word, it will be displayed correctly in the RED box at
     the bottom of the screen.

     Continue the test until the final grading appears.  It will tell you your
     score, record the information for the user, update the main word list for
     words missed (so you can see most missed words) and update the individual
     test list.




     2. Make Spelling Test - This option allows you to custom design a test
     from the available words.  Highlight the word you want to add by using
     the cursor keys or click on the word twice with the mouse.  The word will
     be added to the list.  You can tell what words are included by the check
     mark appearing beside them.  To remove a tagged word, simply highlight it
     and press ENTER again or double click on it with the mouse.

     When you are done adding words, press Ins, Esc or click on the white boxes in
     the upper left corner of the WORD LIST WINDOW.

     If AEISPELL finds TAGGED words, you will be asked whether or not to save
     the wordlist as a test.  If you select SAVE, you will be asked to enter a
     description of the TEST.  This is an important feature since AEISPELL
     automatically assigned the test file name.  Thus to distinguish each TEST
     you make the description is important.

     3.  Edit Spelling Test - Once a TEST has been generated, you can edit it
     with this option.  It will first display a picklist of tests to edit,
     highlight the desired test and press ENTER or double click on the test
     with the mouse.  The wordlist that makes up the examination will appear,
     to change a word, highlight the word and press ENTER or double click on
     it twice.  Now the MAIN wordlist will appear for you to select a word to
     replace the test word with.  Highlight the word and press ENTER or double
     click on the word.  The original word will now be replaced with the new
     word.  To exit press Esc or click on the white box located at the top
     left corner of the WORDLIST WINDOW.

     4.  Edit/ADD Users - This option allows you to create or edit users for
     the system.  Press Ins or Click on Ins at the bottom of the window to add
     a new user.  Highlight an existing user to edit the user name.  Press DEL
     to delete the highlighted user. To exit press Esc or click on the white box located at the top
     left corner of the USERS WINDOW.

     5.  Auto Gen Spelling Test - This option allow you to automatically
     generated test with some defined criteria.  First you must enter the
     number of word you wish the test to consist of.  Next enter the minimum
     grade level, as defined by AEI Grade Level, that will be included and the
     maximum grade level to include.  Now enter the minimum word length to
     include.

     Now select the method to be utilized during the test generation.

          1.  Least Used - Selects words randomly based on how many times they
              have previously been used.

          2.  Most Missed - Selects words randomly based on how many times they
              have been missed.

          3.  Random - Selects words on a totally random sequence.

     Now you will see a window showing the exam being created, when it is done
     it will show you the average AEI Grade Level calculated for this test.
     Next it will display the FOG INDEX calculated for the test.

     The tests description will show how it was generated, i.e. Random - Least
     Used, etc.




     6. REPORTS

     There are four (4) reports available:

            1.  User Average Test Results - Shows all users, number of test
                taken, high score, low score, average score based on total
                words not test average, time on, and last date on.

            2.  Individual Test Results - After selecting the user desired to
                generate a report on it will show you a list of all test taken,
                number of words right, number of words wrong, average score,
                time it took to complete, and the average grade level of
                the test.

            3.  Print a Specific Test Word Listing - This will print all the
                words contained in the chosen TEST and show the number of
                times the word was correctly spelled, incorrectly spelled,
                the AEI GRADE level assigned and the average percentage
                correct for the word.

            4.  Print a Main Test Word Listing - This will print all the words
                available from a word library.  The number of times each word
                was spelled correctly and incorrectly are shown,  the AEI
                GRADE level of the word and the average correct percentage
                are displayed.

                To print any report, press ALT-P (hold down the ALT key and
                press P), after the report is displayed on the screen.

     7.  Most Missed Words List - This will display the main word list in
     order of most missed.

     8.  Print Disk Order Form - This will send the Disk Order Form to the
     printer to allow ordering additional disks of word libraries.  The word
     libraries are grouped by grade levels, SAT, GED and stumpers.  If you
     have a high school student in his/her junior or senior year I highly
     recommend you get them the SAT disks - VERBAL scores have been going down
     steadily and spelling is a key element to achieving a high SAT VERBAL
     score.  We have over 4500 SAT words in libraries and feel if they know
     these words they will definitely improve their SAT score.  These words
     have been selected from various publications designed to improve SAT
     scores.


     ADDITIONAL OPTIONS.

     Reset DBF Counter - Sets automatic test number to 1, such that the next
     test generated will be TEST1.DBF.

     Reset Right/Wrong - Resets the Right/Wrong counters in the MAIN WORD
     listing.

     ABOUT - Says who we are and what files you should have.



     COMMENTS - If you have any comments concerning AEISPELL, recommendations
     to improve it or suggestions for additional features, screen changes,
     etc., please drop us a line with the comment, suggestion or
     recommendation.  If you find the system has definitely helped you improve
     your spelling or someone you know let us know.  If you feel that it falls
     short of your expectations we want to hear that too, but would really
     appreciate it if you tell us why and how it could be changed to be more
     effective.

     Thanks.